Just a quick update and apology ahead of time. Please do not respond via comment to any portion of our website. We are getting inundated with spam and all comments will be marked as spam until things slow down a bit in that department. If you have a comment or question, please don’t hesitate to contact us at obxcdr@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Jay Taylor
]]>Members of the OBXCDR attended the annual SEAMAMMS conference at UNC Wilmington from Friday April 3rd to Sunday April 5th, 2009. OBXCDR members included Jay Taylor, Jessica Weiss, and Karen Clark. The conference spanned a day and half and included oral and poster presentations on research of marine mammals along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Canada.
Education and awareness of bottlenose dolphin conservation is an important mission of the OBXCDR. On Earth Day, April 22nd 2009, OBXCDR Scientific Advisor Jessica Weiss, gave a presentation to 6th grade and 8th grade science students at Manteo Middle School about marine mammal conservation and research. Students learned about the environmental and human-induced threats that face bottlenose dolphins in the Outer Banks as well as the ways that photo-identification techniques are used to identify marine mammal individuals. Students even tried their own hand at identifying dolphins from our catalog using photo-id! Most were successful in identifying our local dolphins, such as Onion, and enjoyed learning about dolphins.
Now that winter is finally over, the OBXCDR has finished our first official winter field season! Winter surveys were conducted once a month in Roanoke Sound to search for any bottlenose dolphins residing in the cool sound waters from October through April. Our frigid days out on the water were rewarded with a sighting of two dolphins on February 8th, heading south in Roanoke Sound towards Oregon Inlet. The two appeared to be a mom and calf pair, however, this is yet to be confirmed. Now that summer is finally here, OBXCDR will increase survey effort and continue to document the presence of dolphins in Roanoke Sound.
The OBXCDR is always seeking volunteers. If you’re interested in becoming a member or volunteering, contact us at obxcdr@hotmail.com!
Our internship announcement has been posted in MARMAM and we are going to have 2 interns this year! We will post an application to this website in a few days. So far, we’ve only been able to perform a few limited surveys this winter but should be going out at least once in January, February, and March. If you are a member and are interested in participating in a winter survey, let Jay know at obxpetdoctor@yahoo.com
The OBXCDR will be teaming with Salty Paws Biscuits this summer to sell dolphin-shaped doggie cookies. Salty Paws will provide the venue for making and selling the cookies and will also gather the supplies for the dough. Cookies will also be sold at Chip’s Wine and Beer and Kitty Hawk Kites. But we need to volunteers to cut the cookies into the dolphin shape and package the cookies as well. Salty Paws will donate the profits from the cookies to the OBXCDR. If you’d like to be a doggie cookie baker for a day, please attend our membership meeting to sign up for shifts this summer.
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